A permanent home. A clear identity. A new chapter for professional rugby league in Birmingham and across the Midlands.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Midlands Hurricanes Rugby League Club will officially become Birmingham Hurricanes ahead of the 2027 season, marking a major new chapter in the club’s development and its long-term ambitions for professional rugby league in Birmingham and across the wider Midlands.
The move gives the Hurricanes a clear identity rooted in the city it now calls home and represents the culmination of five years of work to establish the club and build the foundations for a sustainable future.
Having established Avery Fields as its permanent home, the move to Birmingham Hurricanes is the next step in creating a club with genuine roots, a strong identity and a place that its players, supporters and partners can be proud to represent.
The new identity also reflects the club’s ambition to reach new audiences across Birmingham, attract new supporters to rugby league and create stronger commercial opportunities with businesses and organisations throughout the city and wider region.
Importantly, the move does not change the Hurricanes’ commitment to supporting and developing rugby league across the Midlands. Birmingham will provide the club with its home and identity, while the Hurricanes will continue to work with clubs, communities and participants across the region to help grow the game.
Club owner and Chairman Mike Lomas said:
Over the last five years, an enormous amount of work has gone into building this club and putting the foundations in place for its future.
We have always had the ambition to find somewhere that we could genuinely call home. Establishing ourselves at Avery Fields and now becoming Birmingham Hurricanes is the culmination of a lot of that work.
This is about putting down permanent roots. We want to build something that has a long-term future in Birmingham and a club that the city can get behind and be proud of.
There is still a huge amount of work ahead of us, but this feels like a significant moment in the journey of the Hurricanes and one we are extremely proud of.
Managing Director Eorl Crabtree added:
Moving to Birmingham Hurricanes is one of the biggest decisions we have made about the future of this club.
For me, this is about creating a real home and a real identity. We want our players, supporters, partners and everyone connected with the Hurricanes to have a place they are proud to say they are associated with and proud to represent.
We are taking the name of the second biggest city in the country, and I think that says a lot about our ambition. Birmingham is a magnificent city with a long and proud sporting identity, and we want rugby league and the Hurricanes to become a genuine part of that.
We want to attract a new generation of local supporters to add to the fantastic fanbase we already have. There are people across Birmingham who may never have experienced live rugby league before, and we have a real opportunity to introduce them to our sport and give them a club that represents their city.
Commercially, the Birmingham identity also opens up significant opportunities. There are fantastic businesses and organisations across the city, and we want to build meaningful partnerships with people who share our ambition and want to be part of what we are creating.
At the same time, becoming Birmingham Hurricanes doesn’t mean turning our back on the wider Midlands or the fans who have supported us from outside of the city. Far from it. We are proud of where we have come from and will continue to support the development of rugby league across the region.
Birmingham gives us a home and a clear identity, but our responsibility and desire to help grow the game across the Midlands remains.
This is much bigger than changing a name or a logo. It is about establishing who we are, where we belong and what we want this club to become.
The Hurricanes established their permanent home at Avery Fields ahead of the 2026 season, providing the club with a long-term base from which to continue its development on and off the field.
The Birmingham Hurricanes identity will now be rolled out across the club as preparations begin for the 2027 season.
Further announcements regarding the club’s 2027 plans, commercial partnerships and community activity will follow over the coming weeks.
ENDS
